Aberrant
by littlestwolfling
Summary: Haruno Sakura is a young medical student content to live in society like everyone else, happy to just help others. One night, when a person learns her secret and she learns his, will the new world he brings her into be one she can blossom in? [AU]
1. i

aberrant

chapter one

* * *

The neon light of the sign flickered milky yellow. The radiance didn't push far, irresolute against the 10:07 pm darkness. It was not the only light illuminating the streets and sidewalks by any means—bolder street lamps and more dazzling billboards and signs broke through shadows—and it still wavered without confidence. The thin, man-made tubes twisted and formed words that promised "FRESH HOT PIZZA OPEN FOR 24 HOURS".

Eating so late wasn't necessarily the healthiest option—especially for someone in her field, who should know better—but who was she to argue with her stomach when it nagged and complained so bitterly? She'd been too busy all day to pay attention to any basic human comforts. Who had time for salads when she was in the midst of her MS-1*? Formaldehyde over fruit. Lectures on the glycolysis cycle in biochemistry over enjoying a nice book in a jazzy, coffee shop.

Waiting for the two slices of pizza she'd already paid for, Sakura absentmindedly pulled out her phone to glance at the time. She felt herself pale when the screen turned on, burning her eyes in the nighttime. Her dad had texted a loving "goodnight and good luck with your studies!" an hour and a half ago.

The cutesy panda icon blowing kisses at the end of his message just poured salt in the guilt wound.

If she forgot to call her dad _again_ tomorrow, she'd probably have to end herself. At least her fellow peers could use her cadaver to study…except for Yuuma. If that creep tried to wiggle his way even an inch close to her dead body she'd have to rise again faster than Jesus and kick his ass.

Just the thought of Yuuma irritated her, and in her deep seeded annoyance she thoughtlessly clutched her phone in a death grip, silicone phone case squelching weakly beneath her might.

An awkward, forced throat clearing drew her attention back to the moment.

A young man—roughly around her nineteen years—was staring at Sakura owlishly from behind the safety of his opened to-go window. His index and middle fingers were extended and pressed against the sliding glass that had existed as the only divider between him and the clearly upset girl.

When her gaze drifted over and their eyes met, he blinked twice. Slowly.

"…Two slices of cheese pizza for Haruno Sakura…" The pizza boy said meekly. His voice seemed to only just find its strength in the middle of his sentence before tapering off quietly at the end once more.

Her lips parted, and she showed just a bit too much teeth than was necessary when she offered up a smile. It was instinctively meant to act as a peace offering to the brown haired pizza boy, but he eyed her with heightened wariness. Fighting the sigh that threatened to huff out, Sakura transferred her phone from her dominant hand to her left, freeing the former to grab the triangular shaped box the worker proffered.

As soon as she had the box, the pizza boy pulled his arm back in like a snail receding back to the safety of its shell.

"Have a good night," He fumbled out, as the window was quickly closed shut.

Sakura snorted bullishly at the sequence of events, smirking to herself as she cast her eyes down to look at the white and blue box; however, she quickly checked herself. There was no point in gloating with a smirk when all she'd done was make a random pizza boy nervous. And besides, if the lukewarm bottom of the box said anything, it was that _she_ was the real loser that evening. The pizza wasn't even fully warm.

So much for that lie they had scrawled out in neon. Fresh, hot pizza her ass.

Rolling her eyes, she slipped her headphones back over her ears. Whatever, if she'd wanted fine dining she should've stayed away from a place with the name 'Atomic Boy Pizza'. This was typical fast fare on a Tuesday night.

Turning her attention back to her phone, she opened up her favored music app and perused the selections. She made sure her headphones were properly plugged into the jack before pressing play on a classical music playlist. The sweet sounds of Yo-Yo Ma urging melodies from his cello filled her headspace. The classical music would make her short walk home so much more cinematic. The somber cello danced gently in the folds of her brains, and in the cool night air she could almost imagine the stars twinkling beyond the low hanging city smog.

Damn, would she sound bougie if she said that out loud? Sakura suppressed a groan.

She stopped her trek abruptly at the crosswalk, eyes boring into the little red hand that glows petulantly back at her from across the street. She hated waiting at those things, especially when the traffic was next to nonexistent at that hour; however, her father's careful warning about not jaywalking whispered in the back of her memories. Sakura decided to wait the few additional minutes it would take for the right to go, and the cello sighed softly into the shell of her ear.

A small eternity passed before the little, green walking man strolled blithely in place of the hand.

Sakura nestled her small box of pizza into the safe crook of her arm, crossing the street with pep in her step. She was beyond eager to get home and eat while finally relaxing for the first time that day. Her feet were tired, her shoulders ached, and her stomach still complained now and then as it impatiently waited for the purchased food.

She had reached the other side of the street, sidestepping a discarded piece of gum that sat—dingy white in the streetlight glow—when something felt like it pricked at the back of her neck.

As if called to attention, the hairs on the back of her neck went up in unison.

The chill that shook down her spine and caused her muscles to tense confused Sakura. Using her thumb, she deftly hooked the arch of her headphone and shoved them off her head and down to rest around her neckline. Now—with all of her senses freed up to answer to the strange fight or flight response that had activated in her body—Sakura glanced around her for some sign of trouble. She turned her head to look behind her, left cheek brushing abruptly against the earpads of the headphones. This was a stress response, with muscles contracting beneath the surface of her skin causing goosebumps to ripple to life on her entire epidermis. But where was the cause of stress?

It could have just all been in her head. Sakura knew that emotion could affect the body strongly, and she could just be reacting to the pushed down, subconscious paranoia that came with walking alone at night. But that didn't feel right to her. It had to be more than that.

She was barely mindful of the fact that she had all but stopped walking any further. Blinking and squinting into the night as she cast one last look around her in a three hundred and sixty degree sweep, she paused as her eyes locked onto the narrow alleyway that was directly to the right of her. The light of the streetlamps didn't reach into its depths, and it stretched on between the long line of buildings, leading to a dead end.

A single, pink eyebrow arched. It wasn't typical for her to get so spooked like this, but she was only human and susceptible to paranoia like everyone else. Normally, her brain didn't notice such things, as it was too loud with reciting medical terminology and wondering if it was a bad sign that cadavers no longer bothered her.

Her stomach reminded her that there was something more important to focus on. Something like pizza. Shrugging to herself, Sakura began to walk on as unconcerned as before; however, it would seem to her in hindsight that fate had refused to let her get away. A sound came from the alleyway—faint, but lingering. It was a haunting sound, the sound of a ghost not yet ready to leave the body but not able to stay in the earthly world much longer. Sakura inhaled sharply through her nose, eyes wide. No matter how many times she heard it, Sakura would never get use to the death rattle.

She practically flew to the side of the building, pressing her back against it. Slowly, cautiously, she began to creep to the opening of the alleyway. Her fingers fumbled for her phone to find the flashlight button to turn the beam of light on. Peeking out round the corner of the grey building that led to the entrance of the alleyway, she let the thin ray of artificial light probe through the darkness. It wasn't until her light danced across muddied fingers laying prone upon the wet ground that a puff of breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding exploded from between her lips.

The little girl in her wanted to take it slow and make sure there wasn't anyone else around, and that the supposed person who left this dying heap of flesh and bone wasn't still lurking and waiting for someone else to hurt, but the medic in her couldn't abide by that. Sakura slunk low into the alley, dropping her pizza box carelessly and ripping the audio plug for her phone's headset jack to make better use of her phone's flashlight without the hindrance of a cord getting in the way.

She crouched beside the figure, and moved the light over the person in a head to toe scan so that she could get a good look at the exterior problems. The interior would come second, if it were obvious that the problem wasn't simple and easily fixed. Some instinct in her whispered that it wouldn't be.

He was a male, roughly her age by the looks of it, with blonde hair—well, mostly blonde. The amount of blood spattered and congealing on the right side of his head wasn't nearly the same sunshine yellow she imagined it typically was. A pool of burgundy beneath his body reflected ominously under the glare of her flashlight. Someone had left him partially hidden by a garbage dumpster and discarded piles of cardboard boxes and bottles—or maybe he had wandered there himself, like a dying dog looking for its last moments of secluded respite? Sakura placed her phone on a nearby box in order to free up her hands. The box wobbled slightly beneath its burden, and the light reached only to the shoulders of the young man from its new position, but Sakura was in her element. In the time it would take her to call an ambulance and get "professional" help for the boy, it might be too late. She'd have to take matters into her own hands.

Haruno Sakura was in the top of her class for a reason, and naturally far more adept than any of her peers. It wasn't necessarily cheating, from her point of view. It was just Darwinism, a predisposed affinity that allowed her to succeed so much more in these dire moments than any other MS-1 student could dream of.

Sakura slowly brought her hands to the injured boy's sternum area. She touched him just with her fingertips first, closing her eyes as they made contact with the battered fabric of his shirt. It was damp, with blood and sweat or both and more. Her eyebrows drew together, furrowing and pinching the skin between them so that a minute crease appeared.

She gently pressed her hands fully flush against him.

With her eyes closed, she could feel her energy pool into the dainty conductors that were her hands. She had never been able to explain the way she could heal herself and others, nor her additional strange quirks. In the past, when Sakura had tried to put into words what this energy looked like, she had always imagined that it was a shade of translucent green—maybe similar to the jade of her eyes.

She had never really done something like this before, though. Sakura had always had those abilities for as long as she could remember, and for just as long she could remember her father telling her not to use it unless absolutely necessary. She learned from him that she should not reveal this to anyone, unless she wanted to find herself on the other side of the medical table. Up to this point, Sakura had never used her healing gift so publicly and unguarded…but she couldn't abandoned this person. Besides, her inner thoughts coolly reminded her, it's not like he'd be cognizant enough to know what was happening given his current state. And if anyone happened to see the pair, they wouldn't really _see._ It would just look like a worried girl trying to help some poor boy. Her healing skills weren't palpable to the eye, as far as she knew.

Her energy funneled in through the boy's very pores, enveloping and passing through every white blood cell and vein. First, she would make sure his heart and brain will capable of sustaining themselves while she began her impromptu procedure. She felt for his heart first, as well as the area around it. That romanticized organ was doing well enough, given the dire circumstance. There was nothing inhibiting it, or any direct damage she would need to address above everything else. She moved on, separating her hands and moving them in opposite directions so that she could multitask.

Her left hand went to his head, while her right went down to his abdomen. Sakura hissed a curse at her discoveries. His head had suffered blunt trauma with minor gashes, while the latter revealed a significant amount of penetrating trauma. She remembered when she had been shining the light over his face that she had seen the purpling skin as blood spilled into the soft tissue from beneath the surface here and there on cheeks and forehead. His face was mottled with dirt and ecchymosis. Her closed eyes squeezed tighter as she forced herself to concentrate.

Sakura sent her energy to seek out and repair the damage in each region. She could sense the size, depth, and width of the abdominal injury and assumed that he must have been stabbed once—if not at least three times. She shivered at the thought, and didn't allow herself to dwell on the how's and why's of how he had gotten the rest of his injuries.

As Sakura stemmed the internal bleeding, she began to feel at least a smidge more confident. She could sense her energy forcing his wounds to close their gaping mouths as she sewed them shut with his own biomolecules. And though his swollen spleen was healed and brought back to normalcy, she didn't congratulate herself just yet. She worked quickly and efficiently, and wanted to leave no room for error. She didn't know exactly how long it took her to patch him up to a point of comfortable survival, but after most of the heavy lifting was done Sakura let herself exhale with some relief. At this point, she was no longer concerned about him dying. In fact, the way things looked medically, his body would last him a good long while after this…so long as he didn't get into the same trouble she had found him in. She passed a hand over his arms and legs, finding no serious damage and deciding to come back to the cuts and bruising a second later.

Gently lifting him a bit, she turned him to his side while cradling his head in order to address the death rattle she had heard earlier. A death rattle was typically made by a build up of saliva and mucous in a person's throat and airway when they could no longer swallow. She wanted to turn him on his side to allow those excess secretions to drain more easily from his mouth.

While one hand still cradled his head, her other arm was wrapped gingerly around and slightly under him in order to keep him steady. She maintained energy only in the hand that held his torso, just out of precaution so she could continue to monitor him. Opening her eyes finally, Sakura looked down at her patient. She had shifted both him and herself closer to the light, and could see bubbly saliva and lukewarm blood dribbled out of the side of his mouth as it drained from his throat. It dripped and pattered into the pool of blood that awaited it below with open arms.

Death didn't scare her—she couldn't let it—and she was happy that she had been able to help someone else defeat it that night. Unbeknownst to the boy, they had been sort of teammates. He had held on just long enough for her to come and help him chase away the untimely Reaper.

Her fingers twitched.

Sakura looked to her right hand in confusion, the one that was cradled around the boy's torso and still activated with her probing, healing energy. She winced as a sudden sort of energy buzzed through her bones of her fingers. She pushed her green force deeper into him again, investigating. The discovery shocked her almost as much as when she had initially found him.

His body was alight with an almost foreign, newfound energy. She couldn't imagine it had anything to do with her energy probing around him, it felt so, so…so _different_. Sakura could practically see his organs improving themselves even further, past the point she had brought them to. His entire system was like an effervescent glass of champagne, _bubbling_ and _popping_ with something. She withdrew her green energy back into herself, as fast as if a dog had just tried to bite her. It made her want to drop him completely, but she resisted the urge. Instead, she moved to at least set him down a bit more tenderly, her left hand shifting to the low base of his head in order to support his head more effectively.

She looked back to his face as she did so, and almost screamed. Eyes as red as the blood her hands had been smeared with glared at her through the darkness, catching the light of her phone's flashlight like a cat's. And his pupils…his pupils were skinny and slit, so unlike anything she had ever seen before. The boy grabbed Sakura's left wrist with surprising strength. Her hand jerked in the motion, and the palm of her hand moved and slid slick against the leftover spit and blood that remained on his cheek.

The sound he made in his throat then was no death rattle, but instead an almost animalistic growl.

"…Who…are you…?"

* * *

A/N

Hello, hello~ I haven't written in quite some time here, so hopefully this prodigal daughter's return won't be too unwelcome. :)

*MS-1 is a student's first year in medical school.


	2. ii

aberrant

chapter two

* * *

"...Who...are you...?"

His voice - no, his _growl_ \- was something that shouldn't have naturally been uttered through human vocal chords. She was confused, stupefied, and above all perplexed. She had just "seen" him in his entirety. She had been flying through the arteries of his heart and breathing between each of his skin cells, and yet nothing had given her reason to doubt he was an average human. Sakura must not have been looking for the signs, merely being engrossed with the prospect of saving his life before it toppled over a bloody cliff of no return. Then again, it was hard to look for signs for something she couldn't even fathom as a reality. Surely, something had to tick differently in him, but how? Where? She'd made a grievous error not detecting it before, and her mistake was glaring intensely into her eyes because of it.

The boy's grip was strong on her wrist, like some shackle obstinately locked onto her. She steeled her nerves and forced herself not to take any hasty action. Sakura had no doubt that she could break free of his grasp, but what of the consequences then? If she hurt him further, it might only deepen the blindly mad rage that burned in his red eyes. However, on the flip side, she couldn't allow him to remain so close to her in case he turned into a bigger brute than he already was.

Sakura could feel her pulse beating intensely, in sync with the amounts of stress her body was heavily laden with. She found it hard to meet his gaze with steady confidence. She didn't trust her own eyes not to give away the truth of her deeply rooted fear. Somehow, she knew this was something more than apprehension towards a suddenly hostile stranger. This was something far more innate and genetically embedded within the DNA of her body. Sheep didn't look wolves in the mouth and glare boldly, and she doubted she should, either. Not yet, anyways.

The hand attached to the wrist he was gripping clenched into a fearsome fist, fingers curled tightly into their new positions with natural ease. Sakura was beginning to wish she hadn't healed him at all, and that she had rendered his metacarpals and phalanges useless instead.

"I healed you," Sakura bit out, trying to sound braver than she felt. She also evaded his identity question. She had already shared some of her healing energy with him, she wasn't about to give him anything else from herself be it name or help. This little morsel of information resonated a bit differently than she had expected. Sakura had really only shared this as a bartering piece of information that she figured might help keep her own life safe - a life for a life. She hadn't been betting on him taking that knowledge with a look that - had she not been still fending off a feral fear - Sakura might have interpreted as a glint of surprise in his gruesome eyes. She realized, belatedly, that she shouldn't have been surprised he might have put two and two together. It probably wasn't hard for him to assume the impossible and strange when he seemed to be just as impossible and strange as she was...if not more so.

"Now...let me go, or I'll have to undo all of that progress I made on your injuries," Sakura stated firmly. She was a bit impressed by herself and the commanding tone she used in the face of his glare; though, truth be told, the anger of it had faded slightly in lieu of something akin to searching. Now, Sakura wasn't sure which was worse: defending herself against the fire hot anger in his eyes or squirming beneath this new, piercing look he gave her. His lips - the lower corner still spattered in blood - were pressed firmly in a stubborn and frustrated sort of way. She could see his jaw clench as thoughts surely passed through his mind, all unknown and unpredictable to her.

Sakura was sure, _so sure_ that she could feel his fingers begin to loosen their death grip around her thin wrist. If that ordeal was almost over, Sakura felt like she could practically cry from relief. It would be quite some time before she'd put herself in a position like this again, that was for sure. She was prematurely planning how to take better care of herself and not taking risks like this before she could realize it was already all ruined.

She could see him palpably stiffen from head to toe, the fire and brimstone returning to his eyes like a match amongst dry kindling. It looked like he wasn't even paying attention to her anymore, his gaze drifting to some far off spot above and beyond the top of her head. His fingers - which had, in fact, been preparing to part from her skin - found her once more in a constricting grasp.

"Hey - !" She began, but slammed her loud mouth shut when his gaze flicked impatiently back to her. There was an intense fury radiating straight from his slit pupils and out through his red irises. Unable to determine who that fury was destined for anymore, Sakura opted to take the more aggressive route. It was clear to her that this couldn't end well for her, with his back and forth, in and out of anger routine. She, too, set her jaw firmly in a clench of resolution. She wouldn't hold back this time.

Sakura exhaled sharply through her nose as determination blossomed across her features. She yanked her captured wrist back suddenly, so that the boy's arm would be straighter. Then, as quickly as she could, she brought her free hand towards his exposed elbow in a powerful motion that was sure to deliver a direct blow to his olecranon. Or rather, it was _supposed_ to have. Instead, she found that _his_ other hand had moved a good few seconds faster than hers, and he had effectively stayed her offensive attack. She glared at him, loathing him, and fought to not show even a _hint_ of her surprise when she saw him smirking with sincere mirth.

Equally appalled and embarrassed, Sakura moved onto her next plan of action.

Sakura swiveled her body around just enough so that her legs - curled and tucked close to her body - were better positioned so that they would be facing him. She launched one at him in a swift kick straight to his torso, hoping that even though she hadn't been able to add any real momentum to it, that her own strength would be enough to at least get him off her.

Her kick sent him crashing away from her, his hands having released from her as he curled into a reflexively defensive position. His trajectory was cut short as his back collided with a wall. She bet that'd been a little less than comfortable on his spine.

Good.

"Shit!"

Sakura heard him curse from his landing point and quieted the gloating words that threaten to rise and bubble off of her tongue, acidic and vehement. She couldn't blow it by spouting hot air just long enough for him to attack her out of retribution. Hastily, Sakura stood and reached for her phone. She grabbed it and held it as best she could with fingers that shook more than she had realized before. As she began to run towards the exit of the alleyway, she was torn on what to do. Should she call the police? How would she explain what happened? Would they believe her? What would she do if they didn't? What would she do if they _did_? She might end up accidentally exposing herself in the process, and was too paranoid to risk that. But if she didn't call, would she be safe enough to get home? That crazy bastard might follow her and try to hurt her again.

One strong arm encircled around her waist right as her face was beginning to poke out of the alleyway. Her green eyes had been fixated on the glow of the nearest streetlamp, promising cars and people and help. She watched, in a surreal and practically slow motion experience, as that light jarred violently when her head bobbed in reply to a force her neck hadn't been prepared to support itself against. She was jerked back into the alley again, her phone slipping from her fingers. It tumbled and fell into a puddle of something or other with a very prominent _sploosh!_ \- not as though she could hear it above her own heartbeat pounding in her ears. Sakura slammed backwards into what could only have been a person's chest. She jerked her head around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash.

Those same intense eyes as before were looking down at her, very seriously.

"You need to come with me," he said, starting to haul her backwards. They were moving deeper into the alley. A frenzied panic seized her, and she tried to scream, but he must have felt her ribcage expand as she took a deep breath and he managed to stop her from doing even that. His other hand clamped firmly over her mouth. Her lips had been parted in anticipation for the scream, but now she closed them out of disgust as his flesh slid across them. He tasted like blood, sweat, and grime. She wanted to spit out any saliva in her mouth that had come in contact with him, but his palm was resolutely pressed against such an action. "Agh, no, don't scream! There are bad people out there-"

She wanted to glare accusingly at him. If there was any bad person out there that night, it was the one that was forcing a certain pink haired girl from running away. As if sensing her irate and incredulous thoughts, he puffed out an exasperated sigh.

"Just...Just believe me," He no longer sounded animalistic and hostile. Now, he just sounded weary, impatient, and vexed. He slowly, _slowly_ removed his hand from her mouth, as if still not confident she wouldn't try to scream again. Sakura wasn't so sure herself that she wouldn't dare another attempt. "The guy that hurt me is still out there, and he might try to come after you now, too, y'know? Once he senses new power, he doesn't let go that easily."

Sakura stiffened. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

Shit shit _shit_...she'd really have find a way to not lie so shittily.

He grimaced in what looked to be an almost comical display of incredulity. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, inspecting. If she focused carefully, his entire body language and aura had shifted dramatically. She should have already noticed, but she'd barely been able to remind herself to keep breathing before. Sakura wondered what had caused this change. Or, maybe, this was the normal, and earlier had been his change in a reaction to something she wasn't privy to. Maybe to the man he had mentioned, if he was to be believed? Getting beat up might do that to a person. He seemed a pinch and a dash less threatening. His way of speaking was more boyish and bumbling, sapped completely of its former growls. And...had his eyes changed color? She couldn't tell in the poor light, nor was she all that keen on trying to figure out. The color of his irises didn't make or break her situation.

"Okay then, but...just between me and you...I already know, y'know?"

Sakura didn't have enough time to make a dignified quip - or a dignified _anything_ really - before she found herself being maneuvered so that he could hoist her up on his back. Like a cat avoiding a tub of water, Sakura stuck her hands out and kept herself from getting any closer to the boy's back.

"Woah there, hold it! Nope!" She exclaimed. Sakura returned to her tried and true glare, targeting his head and willing it to pop off at that point. Maybe, if she was lucky, she might have missed something when she was healing him earlier. It would hurt her pride as a medic, but damn it would be worth it if she had. "I'm not going to just go so easily! I'll just scream and rip out all of your hair if I have to!"

Her fists clenched to further prove her point, a silent sort of "hell yeah!" resonating from her tightening muscles.

In response to her declaration, the boy just scratch the back of his neck a bit awkwardly and let out a soft, mirthless laugh. She imagined dried blood accumulating beneath his fingernails with each scratch. "Well...I mean I guess...I'd just have to knock you out, but that just doesn't seem like the nicest thing to do after you healed me and everything..."

"Besides, it's also sort of a trust exercise, y'know?" He continued after a pause, his voice a bit more warm. "I'll trust you not to hurt me, and you can trust me not to hurt you! Problem solved!"

The problem was most definitely _not_ solved; however, if she had to pick her poison, coherently being carried by someone was far more advantageous than be carried around while _unconscious_. Sakura had never wished more than in that moment that the phrase "glaring daggers" was more literal than figurative - then the problem _really_ would have been solved. She had no room to broach further counterarguments with him. A logical voice from within told her that she wouldn't get very far trying to keep him at bay physically, as she'd tried and failed earlier. A very unrefined squeak jumped out of her throat as he reversed against her, knees bent, and easily hoisted up her small frame so that she was up on his back. His sturdy hands held her fast beneath her kneecaps and slightly under her thighs. Her legs were stiff. His touch was unwelcome. Unbidden, his head turned so that he could look at her from the corner of his right eye.

"The name's Naruto, by the way," He offered it in a way that Sakura supposed someone might have offered up an olive branch out of peace. She wasn't ready to lower her defenses and call off the small war that had brewed between them just yet though, and so she stubbornly didn't return the favor. He - Naruto - seemed to realize this quickly, but didn't take it to heart. She thought she heard him mutter something like "sheesh" and "alright then, here we go" under his breath, but couldn't be sure.

The next thing she knew, they were going up and up and _up_. Sakura couldn't help but feel stunned as she watched the gloomy night sky grow closer, the ground falling away from beneath them as Naruto _jumped_. He gracefully used the thin window sills and whatever other slim footholds he somehow found to propel himself higher and higher. She could feel his muscles tense before his last, big push off and then they were just _up_. They were suspended in the air for only a moment, just a slow breath out, before they landed on the destined rooftop. She had reflexively flung her arms around Naruto's neck in their airborne state and had tightened her grip significantly. As his feet came in contact with the flat, commercial rooftop, he teetered for just a moment before regaining himself and wriggling his neck about under her arms.

"Ne, could you loosen up a bit?" He sputtered. Sakura immediately obliged, unwilling to press herself so close to him, even when it did feel good to choke him a bit because of the _kidnapping_ he was basically committing at the moment. As she did, he cleared his throat in a bit of relief before taking off in a sprint, moving far too quickly for her mind to comprehend. Up until this point, her brain had learned a certain set amount of truths. Of course, there were always outliers - such as herself - but she had witnessed any other exceptions. This feeling was probably similar to someone bearing witness to the first airplane flight. Sure, it was unbelievable, but it was impossible to deny the existence of this new truth.

He jumped from rooftop to rooftop as if the wind was carrying him.

"Do you seriously think that this - " Sakura had chosen a poor time to talk, while Naruto was landing atop of another building. Her head jerked a bit with the jarring action, and her soft inner cheek found itself chomped between her teeth in mid sentence. She shrugged it off, mouth stinging even while she directed her healing energy into it to fix her self-inflicted injury. " - _damnit_...you think that _this_ is cover enough so whoever is after you -"

"Hey, you'd have been in danger if I'd left you - "

Sakura returned the favor of being cut off with her own oh so polite interruption. She practically hissed at him. " - whoever is after _you_ won't be able to see an obvious figure running obviously on top of buildings?"

Naruto laughed, in a way that was a bit too cocky for her liking.

"As if," He mused, never breaking pace even as she blatantly ridiculed his logic. Laughter resonated in the tone of his voice. "Down there I'd have to deal with dumb sidewalks and cars and other pointless stuff. This way no one should be able to sneak up on me in a crowd, either. Besides, I'm pretty fast, he won't follow me up here anymore, y'know?"

Well, she wouldn't describe him as exactly eloquent - calling sidewalks dumb and relegating all other details as merely _pointless stuff_ \- but his obvious confidence in himself was rather infectious. It was clear he was someone like her, someone who was more of a some _thing_. She hated to admit it but, even though this was still a quasi abduction, Sakura found an intense feeling of curiosity rumbling in the pit of her stomach. She'd never really thought that she might not be alone. As a middle schooler, she remembered asking her father once or twice about if he knew of any others, but he had always smiled gently and told her there was no one else as special as her. She hadn't been able to explain it then, but when she'd held her father's hand as she asked him the question, she had felt something that she couldn't describe. Her young mind associated it with the closest thing she knew: sadness. If she'd been old enough to know what it was, she would have been able to identify biologically what she felt, which was low levels of serotonin and dopamine. However, her eleven year old memories that remained only recalled and understood the basics of what she had felt. Sakura had stopped asking altogether shortly after that.

She wasn't sure if she wouldn't or just couldn't fathom that there were other people like her, other people so different. But there he was. Fire in the hearth, igniting the torch of some foreign truth that blinded her eyes, so unused to the light as they were.

"That's pretty big talk coming from a guy who was bleeding all over the place just a minute ago."

Sakura could almost feel him physically deflate at this last jab she managed to get in.

"Hey! What the - " Naruto sputtered indignantly. Something akin to childish annoyance toddled its way into the tone of his next words. "You're making me rethink the whole not carrying you knocked out thing."

Besides the fact that she was unwilling to trust him, their recent scuffle was still too fresh for him to be making such threats. She froze against him, only her hair ruffling about as Naruto continued his impressive pace. It was only by chance that she managed a glance over his shoulder and saw his cheeks tightened, the skin brought high up over the bones. He was _smiling_. That insensitive jerk!

She made a move to give his hair a pull for good measure - Naruto's childish mannerisms had rubbed off on her and made her momentarily forget the nature of her situation - but something tickling her ear stayed her hand. It felt like a long, skinny tongue brushing against the opening of her right ear canal. Instead of grabbing blonde locks, her hand instead slammed against said assaulted appendage in confusion. She looked to her right, brows scrunched and eyes narrowed. For one second, one _small_ second, Sakura thought she saw a pair of eyes flash at her from the shadows of a roof a few buildings away. She couldn't be sure, though. Naruto was moving too quickly, and her brain had spotted the eyes - or what she was sure were eyes - for only a blip of a second. It lasted only long enough for her to wonder if it had been nothing but a figment of her imagination.

Still, both the feeling in her ear and whatever she had seen made Sakura's cold run cold. It was worse than when she had first seen Naruto's red gaze. Without thinking, she hunched herself lower to make herself smaller.

"Hm? What's wrong?" Sakura briefly bothered to wonder if he knew something was up by the way she had moved closer to him, or if her body was exuding tangible waves of trepidation. In normal circumstances, she would've assumed the former, but Naruto couldn't even been placed remotely close to the word "normal". She couldn't, either, for that matter.

"Ah, nothing, nothing. I just looked down and got nervous seeing how high up we are," She lied, for once finding it easy to bury the truth behind nonchalant words. Sakura wouldn't admit she thought she'd seen something. It would just corroborate with what he'd said earlier, about someone being after him. It wasn't that she wanted him to be wrong, per say, it was just that she didn't think it would be wise to fan the flames of his conviction. It might become too real. Right now, it was just paranoia, her brain playing on his words and imagining a boogeyman where empty shadows sat instead.

Sakura didn't think she was strong enough to face something like that being a truth.

"You don't have to worry about that, just don't look down!" The grin in his voice was so obvious, like the sun in the sky. Typically, Sakura would have rolled her eyes; however, she was still regaining composure after that skin crawling feeling and could only mutter a small "yeah, ok".

"I've been doing this a long time, so don't worry about falling, y'know? And you don't know it, but there's a base not too far, so it's almost over!" Naruto continued, the tapping of his shoes slowing down just a bit as he concentrated on talking to her. There was a pause, and Sakura could already tell he was grinning cheekily again. "C'mon, I'll make up for earlier when I scared you. Let's have some fun before we get there!"

He was kind of loud with his last proclamation, which Sakura found to be rather hypocritical to what he'd said earlier about not wanting her to scream because he didn't want the mysterious _bad guy_ hearing and finding them. And...wait. What did he mean by fun?

Abruptly, Naruto switched his slowed down speed right back up to once far more breakneck. Caught off guard, Sakura clung close, peeking around his hair with wide eyes. A few of his yellow strands battered softly against her cheeks. He was running faster, too fast, if their path was any indication. Naruto was sprinting straight for the edge of the top of the building they were currently on, and the opposing building was much farther away than any other he had jumped to before. Too far.

And then he was jumping - or soaring, more like it - with a terrified pink haired girl on his back. He brought one of his hands out from under one of her legs, no longer supporting her as he raised it up in a celebratory fist pump above his head. Duly concerned about her sudden decrease in safety, Sakura clamped her freed leg tightly around his waist and slammed her chin down to burrow closer to his shoulder. He was laughing and _laughing_ , while her eyes were squeezed shut and she cursed his warnings about not screaming and the paranoia that had made her see things in the dark. It almost hurt to keep the scream inside that so desperately wanted to escape.

She wondered then, as she tried to find a happier place in her mind, if it might be worth it after all to squeeze as tight as she could. At least that way she'd be able to break his bones before they surely fell to their doom after Naruto's jump of stupidity.


	3. iii

aberrant

chapter three

* * *

With sacred, solid ground beneath her again finally, Sakura promised herself that she would never _ever_ trust Naruto's judgement on "fun" again in her life. They had survived the leap - obviously, given the fact that she was still thinking and breathing air into her lungs - though she might have to avoid high places for an indefinite period of time now, because of him. The rest of their little trip had lapsed in mutual, stubborn silence. Well, for the most part. Sakura had refused to say anything to him after that, ignoring anything and everything he said be it about asking why her hair was pink or small talk about the muggy weather. Naruto, in turn, took a small but personal offense to her stoicism after what he'd found to be an exhilarating jump...not to mention a great showcase of his strength, if he did say so himself. And so the two pouted and sulked in their own ways, though Sakura was the clear superior when it came to this talent. She wasn't sure what it was about the silence that opened like a sea between them, but it seemed to make the blonde boy antsy. In the end, he caved first with a mumble of something like a sort of apology before asking if she knew what time it was. Why that mattered, Sakura wasn't sure, but it _did_ remind her of her poor, abandoned, and most likely broken cellphone he was basically responsible for. Sakura remained resolute and said nothing at all, to which Naruto sighed in a long suffering way.

The rest of their journey had passed uneventfully. No more cocky jumps or show off stunts. And even better, no more strange glimpses of things in lurking shadows. Naruto had been right earlier when he'd said that they were almost to a base. It hadn't taken them long at all to reach the supposed complex, an edifice Sakura felt very neutral about. It was a plain building with beautiful old windows, and from the look of it the place seemed to be an almost vintage office or loft space. It was a far cry from the sleek modernity of all the latest building being constructed not more than a mile away.

Naruto had gently lowered her from her unintentional perch on his back, and she'd fought the urge to lay flush upon the ground and feel the solid security of it all from head to toe. Now, she was looking up at the old building, whose facade was basked in faux orange streetlamp light. The corner of her mouth was hitched up a bit in thought. It wasn't _exactly_ what she'd imagined, when she'd briefly wondered what a base would look like. Then again, she hadn't really known what to expect, anyways. It wasn't as if she was in some mod, spy movie where people threw around the term "groovy" and had moats of piranha at the ready.

If Naruto sensed her disappointment, he didn't question her on it.

"C'mon, let's hurry up and get inside. I've been _dying_ of thirst for the last thirty minutes."

For just a second, Sakura felt a pang of guilt when she remembered the condition she'd found him in, and of _course_ even if his organs and muscles and bones were all fixed didn't mean he'd be fully hydrated and working at one hundred percent capacity -

No, wait. She wasn't even there by choice. No sympathy for the abductor.

Her pink hair had fallen messily a bit, covering the side of her face closest to Naruto. From behind her newfound veil, she stole a glance at him. He had his mouth gaped open and his eyes half closed, tongue lolling out like a dog on a hot summer day. Sakura couldn't understand him, biologically or psychologically - not like the latter was really her specialty, but it didn't take a master to know the basics. She flicked her eyes to the dirty sidewalk beneath her in thought. He was always so comical in both speech and body language now. It was an extreme dichotomy from the moment after she'd healed him and he'd just woken up, eyes ablaze and teeth bared. His canines had glinted, winking dangerously at her in a silent promise that they would tear her flesh from her bones.

A touch on the back of her arm drew Sakura out of her thoughts. She looked to see Naruto's hand, pressed gently but firmly against her, guiding her towards the door. She bristled a bit.

"I can walk just fine on my own, thank you very much," Sakura quipped, sliding to her left a bit so that she would be beyond his reach. She marched to the door without his guidance, not looking back. If she had looked back, she'd have seen him scratching his head in a moment of confusion. Instead, she boldly went up to the door...only to deflate a second later at the awkward realization that she didn't know how to unlock the main door and had to wait for Naruto, much to her chagrin. She heard his steady steps coming from behind her, and in a last minute decision, took a new approach. Sakura whirled around, back pressing against the door to block his way. He'd been closer than she'd realized - only six or so inches away - and so she stared up at him with a look of frustration.

"You're different, too. Why?" She asked blatantly, arms crossing over her chest. She wasn't going to just go like a lamb to the slaughter. The pink haired girl had questions, and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to get answers for each and every one of them. Her eyes met his, and she saw they were blue now. Definitely blue. His iris change affirmed her confidence in her defiance, and she squared her shoulders even further. Naruto squinted, as if seeing something very strange very far away.

"Huh?"

Sakura wanted to punch down one of the walls. Maybe even the whole building. Reasonably, she opted against it, and simply puffed out an impatient sigh. "You know what I mean, with your whole 'just so you know, I know, y'know' thing earlier. I'm not going in there unless you tell me."

She seriously doubted she could keep him from dragging her in there if he used his full force, but she counted on him to not call her bluff.

"Well, why are _you_ different?" Naruto countered skeptically. She'd have almost thought he'd taken it to a near philosophical level if he hadn't been wearing such a sophomoric expression while doing so. His tone made it seem like he was doing the kid brother 'I know you are but what am I' idiom. Still, Sakura couldn't give him an answer. Her lips had dropped apart wide as she went to speak, only to hear silence from herself when she found she had no sincere answer to give. If she didn't even know why she was the way she was, was it really logical for her to expect someone else to who was in the same situation? Still, she wasn't quite ready to back down yet.

"But you _are_ different. We both are. If what you were saying is true, and someone really is after you, is it really smart for us to stick together? That places two potential targets in one place and makes for an easy two birds with one stone type of situation. Don't you think so?"

"Uh, haven't you ever watched a horror movie? Splitting up is never a good idea," He said in a sagely way, as though he wasn't calling on pop culture knowledge to prove his point. "Besides, we're stronger as a sort of family, sticking together and watching out for each other, y'know? And whoever said there was just two of us, huh?"

As he grinned, he reached over and pressed a buzzer of sorts to alert #301 of their presence. Sakura jumped a bit at the old, scratchy sound of it. She took a few tiny but noticeable steps away from the door she had been formerly blockading. There was a pause, and then an answering buzz responded to Naruto's unspoken request to be let in. The lock on the door clicked and popped as it released its hold to allow them to enter. He bent slightly at the waist, in a silly mimic of a bow, grinning as he waved her forward to go first. She blinked quietly for a moment, eyes flickering between him and the unlocked door and back again, before feigning a sense of bravado and strolling in. She paused upon entrance, taking in the quaint but overall typical older building atmosphere that permeated the space. Remembering she didn't know where exactly they were going, Sakura stood stiffly to the side to let him pass her, proceeding to follow him once he took the lead. They went straight to an elevator Sakura hadn't noticed before, and stepped in after the little light glowed with a _ding_ and the doors opened wide for them.

They stepped in quickly and the doors closed. Sakura positioned herself opposite of the boy, arms crossed in what looked to be her typical interrogating position. The elevator lurched a bit as it carried their weight up through the different floor levels.

"So how long have you known you've had...powers...?" Sakura inquired, the word "powers" feeling cliche and unrealistic on her tongue as she spoke it. It felt like she was in some poorly scripted movie. She looked at him baldy, exasperated and done trying to ask hard hitting questions. At that point, she was just trying to decide if she was in a nightmare or floating in a dream. Either were just as likely.

"Kind of since forever... Or, well, if I were to really think about it and try to pinpoint it, I'd say somewhere around nine or ten. It wasn't really all that fun at first, but I got roped in by LEAF pretty soon after my powers started acting up and I learned how to manage everything," Naruto said, looking thoughtful as he cast his blue eyes up to the ceiling of the elevator. Then, he grinned suddenly and got a cheeky tone to his voice as he continued. "I've actually gotten way stronger than I ever thought I'd be thanks to being with LEAF and learning under Jiraiya - "

The elevator came to a stop, and the bell dinged again, this time cutting off Naruto.

"Leaf like tree leaves or...?" Sakura trailed off questioningly, the elevator opening the doors of its mouth wide open once again. As it did so, another person was revealed on the other side. He had a cigarette precariously hanging from between his lips, and both hands were shoved in his pockets. When he caught sight of them, he tilted his head back to look at them down the bridge of his nose before rolling his eyes to the heavens and groaning. He hunched forward even more, as if standing upright was a thing too burdensome for him to deal with.

"Naruto, what are you _doing_?" He asked wearily, tendrils of smoke climbing up higher and higher from the end of his cigarette. His lips had fallen to a lopsided mixture of a grimace and a frown, the annoyed displeasure on his face as obvious as the pungent aroma of his smoke. He must have heard the end of their discussion as the elevator opened, and was far from pleased. "You can't just talk about confidential -"

"Shikamaru! Hey! I..uhhh...well...hey, didn't granny Tsunade tell you not to smoke indoors?"

Naruto and Sakura exited the elevator, the former grinning awkwardly at first before making his accusation. Sakura watched as the boy with the ponytail - Shikamaru - entered inhuman levels of practically tangible exasperation.

"Yeah, almost as many times as she's told _you_ not to call her granny," Shikamaru deadpanned, shifting his weight as he turned his attention to Sakura. He looked at her taciturnly for a moment, not offering or asking a name, before turning back to Naruto. Sakura mostly didn't mind, even though she had been unnerved under the observance of his bored eyes. Being pretty much ignored was better than being asked questions. "Whatever, this is your problem so don't drag me into it. I'm going up to the roof to watch some clouds. Don't bother me if anything goes wrong."

He skirted around them easily, opening a new door to a stairway instead of opting for the elevator - probably because he didn't want to hang around them and endure anymore conversation with Naruto, Sakura mused. The door closed behind him heavily.

"That was Nara Shikamaru," Naruto introduced belatedly, a crooked smile on his face. "He seems kind of lazy - he generally is, to be honest - but he's crazy smart and a really great friend."

Naruto's untempered, loud voice must have carried easily through the corridor and the stairwell, because Sakura could have _sworn_ she heard a troubled "what a drag" echo softly from the same direction Shikamaru had departed in. Naruto shrugged and started walking towards yet another door, apparently eager to get on with the tail end of their little adventure. Sakura spared one last glance over her shoulder at where Shikamaru had exited, wondering if he had powers, and what they were if he did. The meeting had helped build her confidence in Naruto, both in his character and his words. The memory of slitted red eyes and the echoes of his growlings became fainter and fainter with each new piece of knowledge she gleaned. At that point, she was ready to trust him. Her only reservations were centered around why so many other people with abilities had been existing without her ever knowing, and why one of them had brought her to a base they apparently used?

It was impossible that she had been - or ever would have been - in danger. Sakura had always kept her head down and her cards close. If anything, her boldest act had been to actually infiltrate the medical field as a working profession, much to her father's previous worry and chagrin given her abilities. But she had always been careful. She had always been careful, that is, until healing Naruto. Now, she was about to be surrounded by more people who shared secrets like her than she could have ever dreamed of. Her anonymity was gone, but was it sacrificed and traded for something better? How refreshing it was, to know that she wasn't the only one. How serene to realize she had never been alone, but one out of many. How had she lasted so long, without even the prospect or hope of meeting someone like her? Sakura felt like she was breathing for the first time, and she breathed deeply.

Naruto opened the door with ease, the lock sitting unused either because of a frequent coming and going of people or the lack of any sort of real danger. Sakura barely noticed. Besides, would a _lock_ really work against someone unnatural? In her modest opinion, Sakura knew she was strong, but not the strongest. What were average, civilian locks to people like her? She couldn't even imagine. It jogged her memory, and she recalled all those times she had found herself on the unlucky side of a locked door. She'd always followed the polite, social etiquette of either waiting or accepting the latched entry when she could've just pushed it over as easy as a domino.

"This is it," Naruto welcomed brightly, unveiling the room within to her eyes. It was an open, bright place with a long meeting table sitting centrally in the heart of the impressive space. A few other, smaller tables were organized on one of the walls and housed computers on each of their respective flat tops. There were a few potted plants placed tastefully here and there, and a lounge space resided comfortably further within. Lastly, in her quick visual sweep of the place, she noticed that there was a corner turning into a second area, though she couldn't make out what it was for from her position.

Sakura had been expecting a busy room full of people meeting productively and one or two individuals running to and fro with stacks of important documents, but there was no such scene to be found. The peace and tranquility, though not unwelcome, threw her off for a second. Instead of a meticulously working crowd, there were only two people. A blonde girl was lackadaisically draped across a cream colored couch, her hands extended out a bit, clasping a phone as her thumbs worked speedily on the touchscreen. Closer to them, a boy was crouched low next to one of the large, potted plants. He was still wearing sunglasses even though he was indoors, and he had one finger extended and rested gently against a few of the leaves.

She could feel at least fifteen percent of her trust and confidence melt away at the mere impression those two left. It didn't so much as lower her opinion of Naruto as it did of the organization he was affiliated with as a whole. Her eyebrow ticked in disbelief. As nice and supposedly professional as the place looked, this new duo gave it an offbeat, college dorm sort of vibe. Was that guy in the sunglasses high?

'What're you guys doing here?" Naruto inquired, though not unkindly in the least. The tone of his voice conveyed genuine interest and curiosity. He made a beeline straight for an abandoned water bottle on the main table, and Sakura scampered after him. She resisted her desire to all but hide behind him, like some duckling behind her mother's feathers. Naruto, oblivious to her discomfort, opened the bottle and immediately started guzzling the water down. He really hadn't been lying about dying of thirst, Sakura observed before looking back at the other two. The blonde girl hadn't taken the time to look from her phone screen for a millisecond to notice the pink haired newcomer, and either the other guy hadn't or he was just too invested in the plant to care.

It was only when Naruto crunched the empty, plastic water bottle within his hand in satisfaction that the blonde jerked up from her prone position on the couch. "No, don't drink it! That was my water I bought, not some average tap junk you get for free - huh? Who are _you_?"

She pointed her still glowing phone at Sakura accusingly in one hand, and her single visible eyes narrowed. The boy in sunglasses, to his credit, hadn't budged an inch even with all of the ruckus unfolding around him. Sakura looked at Naruto out of the corner of her eyes but, discovering quickly he wouldn't be much help by the look on his face, she faced the girl head on. Her jaw had clenched a bit, unappreciative of the way she spoke to her, like she was some weird stray Naruto had dragged in.

"I'm not sure that's any of your business," Sakura quipped, the other girl's noted attitude bringing out a defiant side in her. She couldn't be sure if it was female rivalry or just a matter of pride, but Sakura felt like if she backed down now, the blonde would never let her hear the end of it. Sure, she might only be goading the other girl on, but at this point she couldn't really see what she had to lose. "Naruto wanted me to come here for some reason, and once that reason is done I'll be gone as quickly as possible."

The blonde looked startled by her response for a millisecond before recovering with a vengeance. She turned her frown full force at Naruto.

"Don't look at me, Ino. I don't know her name, either, y'know?" He shrugged nonchalantly, the empty water bottle still trapped between her fingers and palm.

"Seriously? And you brought her all the way here? Well then..." Ino trailed off, smirking a bit as she set her phone down on the arm of the couch and straightened her position. "I think I can help you out with that _no problem_."

As she moved to raise her hands, Naruto dipped down so that his head blocked Sakura's from Ino's view, breaking her field of view. He shook his head, looking a bit more serious. "Nope, I'm not gonna let you do that, Ino. This isn't some interrogation."

Sakura wasn't sure what they were talking about or alluding to, but she was happy enough that Naruto had stepped in. It was easy for her to forget that everyone in that room had some sort of power, and that it would be wise if she didn't go messing with anyone until she'd learned as much as she could about what they could do. Some childish side in her heart wanted to peek around Naruto's head and stick her tongue out at Ino, but she stayed as still and calm as possible. Ino, on the other hand, huffed and snatched her phone again, returning to the digital screen.

"You're looking a little worse for wear."

Sakura - who had been absently watching the sunglasses boy still squatting vigilanting next to his plant station - blinked in surprise at the new voice. Naruto stood up straight immediately, and as he did so, a dark haired figure was revealed before Sakura's now unobscured vision. He had rounded the corner from the other part of the space and now leaned against it casually, taking in the scene before him. Whereas Shikamaru's eyes had been penetratingly observant, his dark eyes burned holes through anything he stared at. She felt fire burn at the tips of her ears, and she averted her gaze.

"No thanks to you. Could've used your help, jerk," Naruto retorted, his upper lip curling slightly.

"Ah, I can see that. I've been busy, though, tying up loose ends for the committee here and there. Not like everyone else, bumming around the base all day and acting like it's a second home," He stated, voice blase and unbothered, and yet somehow still passive aggressively pointed at his obvious targets.

"Oh, Sasuke, Choji and I are here with Shikamaru to process some files and print off paperwork," Ino replied, propping an arm leisurely along the back of the couch as she peeked at him from behind her long bangs. She turned coy quickly, a subtle smile gracing her lips. "If you ever need help tying up those loose ends, just let me know, ok?"

Sasuke, looking unaffected, didn't even turn to acknowledge her or her vague double entendre she'd slipped in so boldly. Sakura glanced between Naruto and Sasuke, wondering if it was common for them to have little stare downs like what they were doing right then.

"Shino, you've _got_ to stop sitting so still by that damn yucca plant. Move a little, at least! You're giving me the creeps!" Ino cried, shifting easily from her coy simpering with Sasuke to address the boy by the plant. True to form, he didn't twitch a single muscle in response. She rolled her eyes, though it didn't help her cause in the slightest.

Both eyebrows raised significantly, Sakura took in the seemingly ragtag team just as a clatter resounded from another, unseen room.

" _WHAT_? Are we _seriously out of chips right now?_ "


End file.
